FRIATEC / GLYNWED
Pipe activities concentrated on Mannheim / Cautious optimism for 1999 / New products
The integration of the Friatec Group – HQ: Friatec AG (D-68222 Mannheim) – in the Glynwed Group (Birmingham) is making good progress, as was outlined by CEO Friedrich Reutner at the company´s general meeting. In order to coordinate Glynwed and Friatec activities in the current business year, the German Glynwed companies, Akatherm Deutschland GmbH, Speyer and Freiberg, Glynwed Rohrsysteme GmbH, Mühlheim / Ruhr, and S.E.D. Ventilsysteme GmbH, Bad Rappenau, will be placed under the economic management of Friatec and relocated to Mannheim in part. This essentially involves the group´s plastic pipeline activities.
1999 is expected to bring increasingly keen competition and a further fall in margins at Friatec. CEO Prof. Dr. Friedrich Reutner, however, sees two main reasons why the company is wellequipped for future challenges: “we will be reinforcing our market position worldwide with new, innovative products and sophisticated services, in cooperation with our new parent company, and will be successfully expanding our dominant position in our own divisions”. A number of weeks ago already, he made it clear that integrating Friatec into the Glynwed Group was no easy task – particularly given the two “completely different company cultures”. Since then, the sector has been wondering just how long Reutner will remain at Friatec.
In the 1998 financial year, sales at the Friatec Group fell by just under 10% to EUR 298.6m as a result of a number
of disposals. Friatec AG´s sales dropped 11.1% to EUR 202.5m. Adjusted to allow for the disposals, however, the sales volume remained at the level of the previous year. Growth was recorded in the machinery division with pumps and fittings, as well as in technical ceramics/medical technology. Sales fell in the plastic products division, by contrast, where the focus is on pipes. This was due to the decline in construction activity, particularly in the east of Germany, and a clear reluctance by the utility industry to proceed with investments.
READER SERVICE: Friatec 1998 Annual Report (German): PIE-No. 43837.
1999 is expected to bring increasingly keen competition and a further fall in margins at Friatec. CEO Prof. Dr. Friedrich Reutner, however, sees two main reasons why the company is wellequipped for future challenges: “we will be reinforcing our market position worldwide with new, innovative products and sophisticated services, in cooperation with our new parent company, and will be successfully expanding our dominant position in our own divisions”. A number of weeks ago already, he made it clear that integrating Friatec into the Glynwed Group was no easy task – particularly given the two “completely different company cultures”. Since then, the sector has been wondering just how long Reutner will remain at Friatec.
In the 1998 financial year, sales at the Friatec Group fell by just under 10% to EUR 298.6m as a result of a number
of disposals. Friatec AG´s sales dropped 11.1% to EUR 202.5m. Adjusted to allow for the disposals, however, the sales volume remained at the level of the previous year. Growth was recorded in the machinery division with pumps and fittings, as well as in technical ceramics/medical technology. Sales fell in the plastic products division, by contrast, where the focus is on pipes. This was due to the decline in construction activity, particularly in the east of Germany, and a clear reluctance by the utility industry to proceed with investments.
READER SERVICE: Friatec 1998 Annual Report (German): PIE-No. 43837.
15.07.1999 Plasteurope.com [17930]
Published on 15.07.1999